For many are called, but few are chosen.  Matthew 22:14

Exodus 16-17

Exodus 16

Manna and Quail from Heaven

¹ They took their journey from Elim, and the entire congregation of the Israelites came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. ² The whole congregation of the Israelites grumbled against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness, ³ and the Israelites said to them, “We wish that we had died at the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. ⁵ It shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”

⁶ Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “At evening, you shall know that the Lord has brought you out from the land of Egypt. ⁷ In the morning, you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he hears your grumbling against the Lord. Who are we, that you grumble against us?”

⁸ Moses said, “Now the Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning, bread to satisfy you, because the Lord hears your grumbling against him. And who are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord.”

⁹ Moses said to Aaron, “Tell the entire congregation of the Israelites, ‘Come close to the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’ ”

¹⁰ As Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.

¹¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹² “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Speak to them, saying, ‘At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”

¹³ In the evening, quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning a layer of dew was around the camp. ¹⁴ When the dew had evaporated, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the hoar frost on the ground. ¹⁵ When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “It is manna,” for they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. ¹⁶ This is what the Lord has commanded, ‘Every man gather it according to his eating habits. Take two quarts per person, according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.’ ”

¹⁷ The Israelites did so, and some gathered more, some less. ¹⁸ When they measured it in two quart containers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They each gathered according to his eating habits.

¹⁹ Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it until the morning.” ²⁰ But they did not listen to Moses, and some of them left some of it until the morning, so it bred worms and stunk, and Moses was angry with them.

²¹ They gathered it each morning, everyone according to his eating habits. When the sun grew hot, it melted.

The Sabbath Observed

²² On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, four quarts for each person, and all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses. ²³ He said to them, “This is what the Lord has said, ‘Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and all that remains left over, lay aside for yourselves to be kept until the morning.’ ”

²⁴ They laid it aside until the morning as Moses ordered, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. ²⁵ Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you shall not find it in the field. ²⁶ Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, on this day there shall be none.”

²⁷ On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. ²⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my laws? ²⁹ Because the Lord has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”

³⁰ So the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹ The Israelites called it “Manna”, and it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like wafers with honey. ³² Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded, ‘Let a quart full of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ ”

³³ Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot and put a quart full of manna in it and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept throughout your generations.” ³⁴ As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

³⁵ The Israelites ate the manna for 40 years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan. ³⁶ Now two quarts are one tenth of an ephah.

Exodus 17

Water from the Rock

¹ The whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, traveling according to the Lord’s command and encamped in Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

² Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses said to them, “Why are you quarreling with me? Why are you testing the Lord?”

³ There the people thirsted for water, so the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

⁴ Moses cried to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

⁵ The Lord said to Moses, “Go before the people and take the elders of Israel with you and take the staff in your hand with which you struck the Nile and go. ⁶ I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.”

Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

The Defeat of the Amalekites

⁸ Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. ⁹ Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us and go out. Fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God’s staff in my hand.”

¹⁰ So Joshua did as Moses had told him and fought with Amalek, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

¹¹ When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. When he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. ¹² When Moses’ hands became heavy, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until sunset.

¹³ Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴ The Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

¹⁵ Moses built an altar and called it “The Lord our Banner”. ¹⁶ He said, “The Lord has sworn: ‘The Lord will wage war against Amalek from generation to generation.’ ”

Matthew 22:1-33

The Parable of the Banquet

¹ Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying, ² “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a wedding feast for his son ³ and sent his servants out to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.

⁴ Again he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!” ’

⁵ But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise, ⁶ and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully and killed them.

⁷ When the king heard this, he was angry. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸ Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. ⁹ Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the wedding feast.’ ¹⁰ The servants went out into the highways and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was filled with guests.

¹¹ But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who did not have on wedding clothing, ¹² and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ and the man was speechless.

¹³ Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Paying Taxes to Caesar

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and schemed how they might entrap him in his words. ¹⁶ And they sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians, saying, “Master, we know that you are true and teach the way of God in truth, without deference to any man, for you do not regard the appearance of men. ¹⁷ Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

¹⁸ But Jesus perceived their malice and said, “Why do you test me, you hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show me the tax money.”

They brought a coin to him.

²⁰ He asked them, “Whose is this image and inscription?”

²¹ They said to him, “Caesar’s.”

Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

²² When they heard it, they marveled and left him and went away.

Sadducees Question the Resurrection

²³ On that day Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came to him and asked,  ²⁴ “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’ ²⁵ Now there were seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh. ²⁷ After all of them, the woman died. ²⁸ In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”

²⁹ But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. ³¹ But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ ^a God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

³³ When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. ³⁴ But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

^{a Exodus 3:6}

Psalm 27:1-6

The Lord is My Salvation

By David.

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
² When evil men came at me to destroy my flesh,
both my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.
³ Though an army should encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear.
Though war should rise against me,
even then I will be confident.

⁴ One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I will seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to see the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in his temple.
⁵ For in the day of trouble, he will keep me secretly in his pavilion.
In the secret place of his tabernacle, he will hide me.
He will lift me up on a rock.

⁶ Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me.
I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent.
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

Proverbs 6:20-26

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commands,
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them continually on your heart.
Tie them around your neck.
²² When you walk, it will lead you.
When you sleep, it will watch over you.
When you awake, it will speak to you.

²³ For commands are a lamp,
and the law is light.
Reproofs for discipline are the way to life,
²⁴ to keep you from the immoral woman,
from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.
²⁵ Do not lust in your heart after her beauty,
nor let her captivate you with her eyes.
²⁶ For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread.
The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

«        »